Ball & Welch Pty Ltd
IndustryRetail
Founded1855
FoundersCharles Ball[1]
William Henry Welch[2][3][4][5]
Defunct1976 (1976)
Area served
Victoria, Australia
ParentGeorges

Ball & Welch Pty Ltd was a prominent department store in Melbourne, Australia from the 19th century through to the 1970s.[6][7] In its heyday, the Ball & Welch department store was Melbourne's leading family draper, its A to Z departments including gloves, umbrellas and handkerchiefs, mantles, furniture, mercery, millinery, furs and corsets. At one time 26 assistants were devoted to the sale of lace alone.

History

This drapery business was founded by Charles Ball (born c. 1818 Frome, Somerset, England - 2 September 1876 Melbourne, Australia)[1] and his nephew, William Henry Welch(born:c. 1828 and died:2 January 1896)[3][8][9] in 1855.[10] The company's first permanent store opened on the Goldfields at Forest Creek, at Vaughan Springs in 1861. In 1882, it moved to nearby Castlemaine.[11]

In 1874 a branch was established in Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton. The large three-storied premises had frontages to Faraday, Drummond and University streets. The Carlton premises were subsequently used as a warehouse, the original building there partly was destroyed by fire in 1928.

An emporium at 180 Flinders Street was designed by architects Reed Smart & Tappin and was completed in 1899 in an American Romanesque style. The store was extended in 1911 with the purchase of the adjoining Commercial Travellers' Club. The store occupied around one third of the total block and stretched between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane. The Flinders Street store was one of the first in Melbourne to erect neon outdoor advertising, reportedly visible from the Dandenong Ranges. A Sydney branch operated between 1913 and 1924.[12]

In the midst of the Great Depression Ball & Welch contributed to the raising of funds used in 1931 to build a public art gallery in Castlemaine, before the Castlemaine store closed in 1941.

Ball and Welch was listed on the Stock Exchange in 1935. The company was profitable for most of its history.[13] In 1955, the company celebrated 100 years of trading with a commemorative booklet distributed through the Melbourne Herald on 19 March 1955.[14]

In 1962 the company expanded and established a store[15] in Frankston followed by Camberwell, and at Eastland (1966) and Southland (1968) shopping centres. It also operated a 'Ball & Welch gift store' at the then Melbourne Airport landside terminal in Essendon.

The former Ball & Welch department store on Flinders Street pictured in 2006

Demise

In January 1970, Georges launched a successful takeover bid of Ball & Welch in a deal valued at $A1.48 million dollars,.[16] The directors of Georges believed that Ball & Welch stores would give Georges a foothold in the suburbs.[16] Instead, Georges closed all of the Ball & Welch stores by 1976 selling the flagship Flinders Street store in May,1976[17]

Stores today

The Flinders Street store was renovated as Flinders Fair shopping centre in the late 1970s, its façade (including the Commercial Travellers' Club frontage) were eventually incorporated into the Flindersgate carpark. Flexible workspace operator, Hub Australia, opened a new coworking location in the historic Ball & Welch building in 2020. The honour roll from the Flinders Street store which commemorated the employees who served in World War One was relocated to the Light Horse & Field Artillery Museum at Nar Nar Goon, Victoria. The Frankston store is now a General Public entertainment venue .[18][19]

References

  1. 1 2 "Family Notices : Deaths". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 9, 430. Victoria, Australia. 4 September 1876. p. 1. Retrieved 11 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia. , ...BALL. —On the 2nd inst., Charles Ball, of the firm of Ball and Welch, Drummond street, Melbourne, aged 58...
  2. ↑ "Advertising". Mount Alexander Mail. No. 1253. Victoria, Australia. 17 March 1863. p. 3. Retrieved 11 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia. ,...THIS is to; Give Notice that the Partnership heretofore existing between the undersigned, carrying on business as Storekeepers at Vaughan, under , the name, style, or firm of "Ball and Welch" has been this day Dissolved by mutual consent. All debts owing by or due to this firm will be paid by the undersigned William Welch. As witness our hands, this 16th day of March, 1863. (Signed) Charles Ball, Williiam Welch. Witness— Joseph Ball 76 mr 17...
  3. 1 2 "The Late W. H. Welch". Mount Alexander Mail. No. 11508. Victoria, Australia. 21 March 1896. p. 3. Retrieved 11 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ "Will of the Late Mr. W. H. Welch". The Age. No. 12811. Victoria, Australia. 21 March 1896. p. 7. Retrieved 11 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "Death of Mr. W. H. Welch". The Age. No. 12744. Victoria, Australia. 3 January 1896. p. 4. Retrieved 11 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ Among The Terraces - Work in Carlton, By Katie Holmes , 1987, Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV)
  7. ↑ Who's who in the world of women, Victoria Australia (Volume II) (Centenary ed.), Reference Press Association, 1934, retrieved 11 June 2019
  8. ↑ "Family Notices :Deaths". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 15, 448. Victoria, Australia. 3 January 1896. p. 1. Retrieved 11 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia. , ...WELCH.–On the 2nd inst., at Shanghai-villa, St. Kilda road, William Henry Welch, of Ball and Welch Limited, aged 68 years...
  9. ↑ Name – Welch, William Henry Davies, Service Date:04-Jan-1896, Age:63, Grave Location: PRES B 1082, Section Name:Presbyterian, Boroondara General Cemetery
  10. ↑ Today is the happy 100th birthday of your favorite store, Ball and Welch, 1855-1955.
  11. ↑ "Crossed the Bar". Weekly Times. No. 2, 421. Victoria, Australia. 1 January 1916. p. 24. Retrieved 11 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia. , ...The death occurred on December 24, at the residence of her sister, Mrs Ball, at Jolimont, of Mrs E. Welch, 71, widow of the late Mr William Henry Welch, one of the founders of the well-known drapery business of Ball and Welch Pty. Ltd. Starting about 1861 at Vaughan, then a flourishing mining township, the business was extended to Carlton in the early seventies, with a branch at Castlemaine. In 1882 the partnership was formed into a proprietary company, and ultimately opened in Flinders street in 1899...
  12. ↑ "Other States". Australasian. 11 July 1925. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  13. ↑ "Ball & Welch Profit Down". The Herald. No. 22, 543. Victoria, Australia. 23 August 1949. p. 6. Retrieved 11 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ↑ Today is the happy 100th birthday of your favorite store, Ball and Welch, 1855-1955.
  15. ↑ "Search Results". gallery.its.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  16. 1 2 "Georges offers $1½m for Ball and Welch". Canberra Times. 23 January 1970. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  17. ↑ "Goodyear loses $4.5m in 1975". Canberra Times. 1 June 1976. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  18. ↑ Sievers, Wolfgang; H. W. & F. B. Tompkins (architects.) (1960), Ball & Welch store, Frankston, Victoria, retrieved 11 June 2019
  19. ↑ "General Public | Frankston". 21 October 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
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